Here is my argument as to why the Dark Knight is even better than a nearly perfect action hero story. I argue that it is actually a well constructed film that uses literary techniques to construct an artistic unity. (spoilers contained herein!)
First, what is the movie about? It is a meditation on good and evil in the context of the age of terrorism. The Joker is a terrorist; he says so really, and demonstrates that money and greed are not his motives. He wants chaos for the sake of chaos. The batman is the anti-terrorist and has to wrestle with the same issues that America thinks about: surveillance, interrogation, how the rest of the world (Gotham) sees him.
That’s just a surface description. The film also states that evil and good are closely related, two sides of the same coin that is constantly being flipped. That, in fact, is the central metaphor of the film and the one that the director exploits to the fullest. The obvious place to start this is to look at one of the three main characters: Harvey Dent, aka Two-face. He habitually flips a coin and eventually ends up with two faces. That’s the obvious. Here is a list of the way the film pursues this as far as it can.
There are No opening credits and the LAST thing you see is the title, so the movie itself is flipped.
Dent is repeatedly described as the city’s white night in this film about the dark night.
The Joker often presents his evil plans as a choice of two opposites: the boats at the end, the choice to save either Dent or the girl.
Dent isn’t the only character with two faces: masks and make up are a big part of the character development – even characters that don’t put on a mask, Gordon for example, have to pretend to be something else for at least part of the movie.
The movie does turn the moral universe upside down. Dent is seen as the hero but the batman ends up as the bad guy who needs to run from the law. This is even expressed in backwards logic. Batman doesn’t get chased, then decides to run; he runs because he will be chased.
The joker’s last scene he is, literally, upside down – but filmed right side up.
The truck stunt is spectacular, of course, but they had to do it that way. You can wreck a truck in a million ways, but this is a movie about flipping things upside down. So, you flip the truck upside down just like Dent flips a coin. The Dark Night uses LIGHT poles to do this, by the way.
The Joker “wins” a fistfight against batman by getting beaten up by him.
All of this is based on one viewing. I want to see it again with an eye for this. I suspect there is much more. I am thinking, for example, that windows spend a lot time being used as doors and maybe the reverse as well? The batmobile is in disguise and is really two things at once? Getaway vehicles back up to get on camera (the bus for example) when backing is just the opposite of getting away.
All in all...I LOVED this movie and Heath Ledger was fantastic. I am wondering what you all thought of this movie and if you think I am over analyzing here?
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